Carlos Gomez earns the assist on the first of Chris Davis’s two home runs.

Well, the lead was fun while it lasted.

Which was all of about ten minutes.

After Shin-Soo Choo led off the game with a home run off the less-than-stellar Dylan Bundy, it looked like maybe the Rangers bats were going to come to life.

The next three batters went out quickly and quietly. Then the wheels fell off.

The Rangers lately are the Michael Jackson of baseball. They wear a glove on one hand for no apparent reason. After clunking the game away on Sunday against the Royals, the Rangers blundering ways started early in Baltimore.

You know when sure-handed Adrian Beltre makes an error, there is some bad cosmic mojo about to happen. It happened.

A Beltre error (later officially changed to a hit), a walk, a double to score two runs, then a ball that Carlos Gomez let bounce off his glove and land on the other side of the fence for a two-run homer. Then a single, then another two-run homer.

And just like that, the Orioles led 6-1. And just like that, the Rangers were on their way to losing their third in a row, this one 12-1.

But for one brief, shining moment, Texas had a lead.

There’s that old saying, “We should have quit while we were ahead.” It seems the Rangers did.

*****
TODAY’S GAME:

Martin Perez (5-6, 4.55) vs. Kevin Gausman (5-7, 6.39)
Game time: 6:05

How the Rangers hit against Gausman.
How the Orioles hit against Perez.